Everything You Need To Know About API Security

APIs, which stands for Application Programming Interfaces, have been powering most of our modern digital solutions for a while now. From social network communication to financial transactions, checking weather forecasts and traffic congestion, APIs work behind the scenes to give us valuable insights and execute critical transactions.

APIs are also getting more ubiquitous, with one recent report revealing a massive 321% increase in overall API traffic over the last 12 months. But this increased usage has also seen a corresponding rise in cyber threats, with API attacks rising 681% in the same time frame.

What are APIs?

An API is a software that allows two distinct applications to communicate with each other. One application delivers a request to another application and receives a response to carry out its specific tasks. APIs have defined functionalities that are independent of their implementation and form the building blocks in developing software.

Put simply, an API is a way for two software systems to interact with each other.

For example, consider an app that lets you search for flights. After you enter your options and click on the “book” button, the app still has to check the airline’s database for seat availability and costs. The application can pull this data from the airline’s API and return it to you to continue with your booking.

What are the mainstream API Protocols?

In order for APIs to enable interaction between systems, it has to exchange data and specific commands. This exchange is governed by a set of protocols and architectures which can vary depending on the individual use case. Some mainstream API protocols include:

• REST (Representational State Transfer) architecture: One of the most popular protocols, REST works by separating the front and back ends of the API. It is also “stateless”, which means no data or status is stored in between requests. APIs built on REST are known as “RESTful APIs”.
• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol): This is a standard generally used to create web APIs and supports various internet protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, and TCP. It is more structured, controlled, and defined than RESTful APIs.
• gRPC (Google Remote Procedural Call): An open-source framework developed by Google, capable of running in most environments. Its uniqueness lies in the ability for developers to define their own custom functions.
• GRAPHQL (Graph Query Language): Developed by Facebook, GRAPHQL queries data from the server like database query languages. Since only the data that is requested is retrieved, it saves time and resources.

What is API Security?

API security involves measures and solutions to help protect the integrity of APIs and prevent malicious attacks. It involves processes that investigate and mitigate security risks and vulnerabilities in APIs.

If APIs are left unsecured, hackers can exploit them to steal sensitive data, crippling organizations financially and through reputational damage. Techniques in API security include rate limiting, authentication, and authorization. Beyond these techniques, it requires enterprises to adopt a culture of security, covering the entire software development and API workflow.

Why is API Security Important?

API security has become crucial today due to their extensive usage in web, mobile applications, and SaaS products. These applications are common in banking, retail, entertainment, healthcare and involve customer-facing portals and sensitive data, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

Moreover, many businesses are shifting to cloud-based storage and computing, making applications accessible but also exposing them to cloud computing security challenges, as APIs can be exploited to breach networks.

What are different methods of API authentication?

Businesses can rely on several API authentication methods to enforce security. These include:

Open Authorization (OAuth)

OAuth is an open standard that allows third-party services such as Facebook or Twitter to take an end user’s account details without exposing sensitive fields like passwords. It provides an intermediary service to the end user by giving the service an access token that confirms user authorization.

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA requires more than one method of verifying a user’s credentials. For example, it may request a passcode sent via email or text message, which must be confirmed before proceeding with authentication.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

TLS is a widely-used security protocol that provides authentication, privacy, and data integrity between two applications that communicate with each other. It is used for secure data exchange over a network, such as during a browsing session, file transfers, and more.

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)

SAML is an open standard for secure sharing of data involving user identity, authentication, and authorization. It is implemented with XML and provides a framework for single sign-on (SSO) implementations.

What are The Top API Security Threats?

With increased API usage and evolving sophistication of cyber attacks, businesses must watch out for API security threats. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) lists the Top 10 API security threats (2019), including:

Broken User Authentication

These threats arise when authentication mechanisms are implemented incorrectly, allowing attackers to compromise authentication tokens or exploit implementation flaws.

Injection

Injection flaws occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter in a query, involving attacks like SQL, NoSQL, and Command Injection that trick interpreters into executing unauthorized commands.

Broken Object-Level Authorization

Endpoints can be attacked when functions take user input to access a data source using an API. These functions need to incorporate authorization to prevent endpoint targeting.

How Does API Security Work?

API security enforces key elements of authentication and authorization. Authentication verifies the client application’s identity and permission to use the API. Once authenticated, the application must pass authorization to determine access to data and actions.

API Security Best Practices

To prevent man-in-the-middle attacks on APIs, follow these essential security best practices:

Look for vulnerabilities

Identify weak points in your API lifecycle and search for specific vulnerabilities, like SQL injections. Standard vulnerability scanning techniques can help discover these weak points.

Use tokens for access control

Security tokens protect APIs by requiring authentication of a token before granting access. Any program failing authentication is rejected.

Use encryption in API communication

Encryption ensures that only the entity with the right key can decipher a communication, protecting data from unauthorized users.

Set quotas and throttling

Throttling and quotas restrict data transfer speed to thwart attacks like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) that aim to overload systems.